Daily Archives: August 14, 2012

Business owners in both neighborhoods lobbied City Hall, arguing that the meters and parking rate hikes have cut into their sales and cost jobs. Some of the meters will be used elsewhere in L.A.

City Hall has been squeezing every penny out of Los Angeles motorists in recent years, approving hundreds of new parking meters and repeatedly jacking up parking fines.
But one corner of Los Angeles has managed to buck the tide, convincing the City Council not just to remove hundreds of meters but to reduce rates by up to half on the machines that remain.
On Monday, San Pedro civic leaders conducted a ceremonial parking meter beheading to celebrate an extraordinary victory: the removal of 645 parking meters in their community and nearby Wilmington….
The protests quickly reached then-Harbor area Councilwoman Janice Hahn, who has since been elected to Congress. Parking meters became an issue in the election this year to replace her, with the top candidates pledging to address merchant complaints…
The area’s new councilman, Joe Buscaino, has worked to eliminate hundreds of less frequently used meters on the outskirts of the San Pedro and Wilmington business districts. The city would lose only $45,000 per year by dumping the meters, once reduced maintenance costs are considered, he argued…
Buscaino’s initiative also cut the rates of the remaining meters in downtown San Pedro from one dollar to 75 cents an hour in some places and 50 cents in others. Parking also will be free in two city-owned lots, and the amount of time shoppers and others can leave vehicles at metered spaces will be doubled, from one hour to two…
The Harbor area retreat on parking meters and fees comes just weeks after council members voted to hike parking fines for the sixth time in seven years. And though San Pedro and Wilmington will be losing meters, other neighborhoods will be getting more…(more)

This goes to prove that the meters are not for everyone, but some businesses want them. No one size fits all approach works. ENUF seeks to protect the citizen’s rights to decide what they need.

Residential parking permits are determined by state statute, which is lacking in several areas. If you feel this needs to be changed, you can sign a petition to address the matter at that level, or you can write your state representative.

The City is finally catching on that its parking situation — to put it plainly — sucks.
It is now looking for ways to address the spidering mess that emerged from its residential parking program, which started 35 years ago.
The program lets residents of certain streets and areas park for 72 hours without moving if they purchase a handy $104 annual permit. The point was to keep out of town commuters and tourists from cramming in to residential areas and abusing their parking time…
The SFTMA will discuss possible next steps at its Board of Directors meeting later this month…

SAN FRANCISCO — Over the protests of neighbors — one of whom has sued the city — crews Monday are starting to relocate utility lines in North Beach as part of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s Central Subway project…

The planned work has prompted one man to file a lawsuit, and other neighbors and merchants who are angry about how the construction will affect them are threatening to file a second one.

Marc Bruno, a North Beach resident with the group Save North Beach, filed a lawsuit on July 31 asking a San Francisco Superior Court judge for an immediate temporary restraining order to block the project.

That request was denied last Thursday, but an injunction hearing is scheduled in the case on Aug. 29, Bruno said…